There plunged the rays of love
by OPYKJ
Summary: A tragedy in a place of light. Very dark.


**Warning: This fic deals with a mass shooting. **

Inspired very loosely by The Window and Love Itself lyrics by L. Cohen. Add to that the recent blaze in the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame and the senseless killings in places of worships.

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Strange the details that stop the mind in the middle of utter carnage.

Phaser beams shimmering on and off like fireflies and settling on the shoulders and chests of the people fleeing their deadly touch.

Kathryn's shiny boots, caught in a ray of scattered sunlight stabbing the vast interior of the building at a low angle. Her back hunched, she is shepherding a group of terrified men and women away from the weapon fire.

The yellow and red shoulders of the remainder of the away team taking cover behind the carved columns rising towards the high-vaulted ceiling. With their weapons locked outside the ancient building by local decree, they can't retaliate against the unknown attackers.

_This is a holy place, a place of rest for the soul. Leave your weapons aside. Come in peace. Come in peace._

The screams rush back at Chakotay as he returns to a place he can't escape from. The crowd lurches from one exit to the other, finding no way out. They can only run this way, that way, until many fall where they stand, mouths and eyes wide open as if in anguished prayers.

Carey and Tuvok have taken charge of a group of older men, keeping them out of harm. Janeway is standing over a crying child behind a large pillar close to a window. She gestures that she is not injured, but it's clear she can't break free without exposing her young charge to the wave of phaser fire.

The assailants are shooting from the large entrance doors and remain faceless. Chakotay is sure this attack has got nothing to do with _Voyager_, but it's of no comfort to the people caught in the senseless violence. He's got no idea who the attackers are, what kind of terrifying wrongs has been done to them that they would mow down defenceless men, woman and children. And why here, in the very same monument he'd been admiring not ten minutes before, part of the last group from _Voyager_ to visit this renown site.

_It is the wonder of our world. The best time is at sunrise. You are welcome. You are welcome._

Thick translucent walls split by long tall windows let seep the first muted rays of daybreak into the cathedral-like space. Visitors, and eons before them worshippers have polished the stone floor and the carved bas-reliefs to a shiny surface which glittered as dawn whispered outside.

Carey had been all over their guide, asking about the type of nanoceramics that could let in light and be strong enough to support the weight of the walls without massive buttresses.

"Bless be our ancestors who built such a miracle," the woman had answered with a knowing smile. "A skill now lost to us, their lowly descendants."

_Behold, honoured guests from afar. Behold and marvel. _

Slowly, almost ponderously, the two large suns had broached the horizon on either side of the building, and even the children half-asleep in their parents' arms had lifted their faces in awe. The huge windows had burst into light, the thin sheets of transparent nanoceramics held by silver threads it seemed, as if the individual panes had been woven in place on a tapestry set on fire.

Rainbow colours now pour out of each window and cascade over the marble floor, flowing over too many bodies lying still on the stones.

Chakotay swallows the bitter bile that comes to his mouth. A massacre in a place of splendour and veneration.

He knows too well that even in the Federation, where one sees peace, another calls an outrage, justifying annihilation and that of those who believe in it. Too many Terrans have done so in centuries past in the name of vengeance or that of creeds and dogmas now long forgotten. And what a better place to assert such a vengeful claim than in a revered site, visited by so many?

God knows he's killed too. With his bare hands, holding a phaser, giving the orders to unleash a volley of torpedoes on an enemy ship. He's killed in anger, he's killed fearing for his life and that of others. He's calculated how many should die so his own crew would live. He's done all those things, but never this. He's never been tempted to reclaim his people's planet and remake history in their favour through such indiscriminate slaughter in such a sacred place. That is not his way, never has been.

The screams and shouts dwindle down to whimpers, the phaser fire lessening, although it never ceases. Kathryn glances at him from across the aisle, then taps on her combadge, but her hails, like his, remain unanswered. She then dips her head towards the main exit. He shouts to stop her, but she's already peeking from behind the pillar which has so far sheltered her and the young boy. Chips of heated stone explode close to her face and she recoils back to safety, wiping a trail of blood off her cheek.

His combadge crackles back to life. ~_Transp…can't penetrate…Attempting to compens…_~

"Harry?" The message breaks up. The nanoceramics in the walls and windows are bouncing back the sub-space waves, thwarting _Voyager_'s attempts at an emergency beam out.

Already the shadows on the floor have shrunk as the suns race higher in the sky. The people behind him are safe for now, protected by a large pillar base. The assailants seem content to stay outside, their silhouettes almost invisible against the radiance now flooding the interior. But at any moment, Chakotay expects them to move in, walking calmly among the fallen and shooting the defenceless survivors at point blank.

In the cavernous space, Chakotay notices something new. Vibrations run through the air, the pitch rising, the whole building throbbing underfoot. A high-pitched crack, then another and another can be heard over the phaser fire which lessens, the armed men outside retreating slowly, their job done.

Janeway has drawn the young boy closer to her, covering his ears with her own hands. She tilts her head upward, and he follows her gaze. The windows are curving in, the silver threads holding the nanoceramics panes snapping one by one. The attackers are not satisfied with a massacre. They must also erase the brilliance that seeks to outshine the darkness within them.

Standing by the window, Kathryn looks at him and mouths 'I'm sorry'. She's frozen in the light which explodes around her into a cloud of multicoloured shards. Chakotay runs towards her, draping his body over her smaller form and that of the child.

All busy in the sunlight, flecks of blood red sunlight float and dance around them.

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My gratitude goes to BlackVelvet42 for her patience and for reading dark themes.


End file.
